“A writer lives, at least, in a state of astonishment. Beneath any feeling he has of the good or evil of the world lies a deeper one of wonder at it all. To transmit that feeling, he writes.”
― William Sansom

Monday, July 28, 2008

Texting Madness

Just a quick thought about texting. My son and I were in a doctor's waiting room today, and there were a total of 6 of us in there: 3 adults, 3 teens. Four of them were texting people and one of those was not only texting, but making noises as he read the responses! His phone made beeping sounds each time he pressed a button, so his corner of the room sounded like this: beep beep...beep...beep...beep beep beep...(pause)..."No way!"...beep beep...beep....beep beep beep beep...(pause)..."I can't believe it! Holy ******!"...beep...beeeeeeeeep. You get the picture.

The two teen girls kept flipping their phones open and shut; waiting with baited breath to hear from their boyfriends? Their mother was texting away with abandon, pausing, then texting furiously. No one spoke to anyone, no one looked at anyone. Joseph and I felt like dinosaurs that had been brought back to life and plopped down in the middle of a civilization we just didn't know anything about.

Though it is the way of modern life, and I make my own use of technology, believe you me, the environment in that waiting room today felt cold and sterile. Like we were life FORMS sitting there and nothing more. Then a young mother came in with a baby and toddler, and when she needed help with the baby's car seat, the texting mom jumped up and came to the rescue. Just for a moment, warmth flowed back into the room. We all smiled at the children and then-phhhttt-just like that, back to the texting and the beeping, and the waiting.

Oh well. I do know that we still share one thing: the need to fill that missing God relationship with something. Whether it be with people, technology, sports, food, or a myriad of other creative things we humans can come up with, when we lay our heads down to sleep at night, all alone in our rooms, we know for sure we need a Savior. We feel it in our solitary moments and when our hearts are hurting and sore. And in the meantime, God is searching for us...and waiting.

"The lamp of the Lord searches the spirit of a man; it searches out his inmost being." Proverbs 20:27

"Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign Lord comes escape from death." Psalm 68:19-20

Great message, hun - I have NEVER texted (must be a dinosaur right along with ya LOL), nor have I been in a room with that kind of atmosphere (at least not that I noticed). I love how you drew your word RIGHT out of that situation.Did you see my little "present" for ya at my blog? Huggles :D

Dee, I love this post, especially the message tie-in. I've been thinking of a texting post, especially since I've just entered the world with my own son. I actually saw someone texting in church yesterday!!!! Hopefully, they were evangelizing. Yea, right!